Publisher Stephen P. McGreevy

Contributor Stephen P. McGreevy

Mediumwave (AM) Broadcast-band DXpedition to Oahu, Hawaii, November 2010;
MF/HF DXpedition to Point Reyes, California 06-08 October 2010;
Longwave Dxpedition near Darwin, Calif. 17-18 January 2011:

Between 15 to 21 November 2010, I returned after a 19-year absence to the gorgeous Hawaiian Islands to do a Mediumwave (AM) broadcast-band DX reception survey and recording project, and to see how many of my Mojave Desert HF (A1A) beacons I could receive too. I had previously extensively DXed the mediumwave/AM and LW radio-dial on three Hawaiian Islands between January 1986 and October 1991, and had not been back since.

[Being that it was necessary to bring a late-1990s era Radio Shack cassette recorder rather than a digital audio recorder in order to keep RFI down to almost nothing from the recorder. But the audio-recording quality is somewhat diminished also due to mostly using speaker-to-mic method, so I could carry on a dialogue with the recordings. Refer to the log sheet files linked below for logs of the recordings and specifics.]

(also see "The Best of hawaii MW DX 1986-91 at: http://www.archive.org/details/TheBestOfHawaiiMediumwaveamBroadcast-bandDx-86To91 - or search for my full-name here on IA to obtain the URL.)

This time in Hawaii, I chose a location on the north-east (Windward) side of the Island of Oahu, at Malaekahana Bay, just south of the small coastal town of Kahuku, Oahu (at Makahoa Point). This ideal location, at a private gated-campground (Friends of Malaekahana Campground), is on the Windward shore of Oahu north of Honolulu by 30 miles/45 km. I chose this location so that the entire length of the lovely Koolau Range lay between Honolulu and my DX site, thus the HNL radio stations were greatly attenuated to minimize interference. (Fortunately too, no Honolulu AM station is transmitting with those nasty HD-Radio digital/hash sidebands as of this DXpedition's period).

----------------------------------------------------------

A FEW TEXT-LOG-FILES (.txt) OF THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF EACH AUDIO FILE HAS BEEN UPLOADED BETWEEN 09 to 15 DEC. 2010 - SEE BELOW - MUCH MORE INFORMATION IS IN THESE TEXT-FILES. Audio files "Record003.mp3" through "Record016.mp3" correspond to each complete-side of each cassette tape I recorded my DXing on. Most are 47 minutes in length, with the exception of MP3 files "Record013.mp3" and "Record014.mp3" which are 31 minutes each. Audio-files "Record017.mp3" through the latest file are smaller files containing selected and very interesting segments. Again, please refer to the text files downloadable/viewable below to far-better understand the contents of each MP3 file.

-----------------------------------------------------------

As I had (very) limited-space in one suitcase on the 757 airliner (I had to bring along my tent, sleeping bag, changes of clothes, rain tarp, etc.), I employed only a Sony ICF-SW7600GR portable receiver and a Tecsun 9-inch diameter tunable loop antenna for excellent sensitivity and ability to null undesired stations and directions, and a 40-foot length of antenna wire for HF/SW reception.

I also decided to use a trusty Optimus (Radio Shack) cassette recorder and sensitive microphone - (the cassette recorder emits no RFI compared to my digital audio recorders), and I had along six 90-minute and one 60-minute cassette tapes with me as well. Less audio-quality than digital recording, though.

---

The mediumwave/AM broadcast-band DX reception was astounding and beautiful as I expected, with Mainland US and Canadian stations fading-in 2 hours before Hawaii sunset. In the middle of the night when darkness arrived into east Asia, the entire BCB was crowded with both 9 kHz-spaced stations from Asia and 10 kHz spaced stations from North America, the band would fill-up with a mass of hetrodynes between 1 to 5 kHz in tone. By an hour before Hawaiian sunrise, the 10 kHz-spaced stations from North America all would fade-out and leave only gobs of Asian stations on 9 kHz-spaced channels that were audible to almost 1.5 hours past local Hawaii sunrise.

Due to my location on the northeast shore of Oahu at Malaekahana Bay just south of Kahuku and north of Laie, with the Oahu Island/Koolau Mountain Range blocking reception to the south and south-west directions (and even the Honolulu AM stations had selective-fading on them at nighttime and frequently had Mainland interference and 9 kHz-channel hetrodynes on them as well), I did not receive any signals from the Southern Hemisphere (incl. Australia or NZ), unlike during previous Hawaiian DXpeditions (1986 to 1991) to southern sides of the Hawaiian Islands.

I talk extensively throughout all of these recordings providing details of reception, location, times/dates, the stars in the sky and moon-phases, weather, and humorous recordings of the local wild-chicken sounds (including lots of roosters crowing in the background), lovely birdsong, beach waves, rain-falling on my tent's rain-tarp, complaints about general "junk" programming on the North American AM dial (except the CBC), and some FM (tropo) DX-reception from Honolulu, Kauai, and Maui (with great Island/Hawaiian music on some of them). Enjoy the incredible global reception of MW/AM in Hawaii! It was so very good to get back to my favorite place to DX in the World (besides the remote desert for VLF to HF beacon Listening). Mahalo Nui Loa!

Stephen P. McGreevy - N6NKS - November 2010, updated January 2011

---

Please enjoy the photos too: - of Point Reyes National Seashore in October 2010 (PA) and Oahu, Hawaii November 2010 (PB) - and also MORE mp3 audio-files of mediumwave DX from Marin County, California, in 1977, and October 2010 at Point Reyes in a tent, and the Owens Valley desert of Calif. Dec. 2010, also! I also include photos and recordings of an 18 January 2011 Longwave DXpedition in the Mojave Desert (NDBs). SpM - N6NKS - www.auroralchorus.com